“Nobody has yet proven that this experiment was safe,” says Ms Bay’s lawyer Alexander Molokhov. “This impact could have altered the orbit of the comet, so now there is a chance that the Tempel may well destroy the Earth one day.”

... even if the comet stays at a safe distance from Earth, Ms Bay’s own life, she thinks, will never be the same again. An amateur astrologist, she believes that any variation in the orbit or the composition of the Tempel comet will certainly affect her own fate.

So Ms Marina claims to be experiencing “a moral trauma”—which only a payment of $300m (252m euros; £170m) can put right. [BBC]